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SpaceX Aims for Orbit with Starship Flight 14, Carrying Starlink Satellites

SpaceX is preparing for Starship Flight 14, an ambitious mission targeting orbit and the deployment of Starlink V3 satellites, building on lessons learned from previous test flights.

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SpaceX's Starship and Super Heavy Booster stacked and ready for a test flight.

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Starship Flight 14: SpaceX Attempts Orbit

by Ryan WeberSeptember 27, 2026

written by Ryan WeberSeptember 27, 2026

After more than a decade of development in many forms, SpaceX’s Starship is slated to attempt its first orbital mission and deploy Starlink V3 satellites into an operational orbit. This marks a historic mission for the world’s largest and most powerful rocket ever and could help usher in a new era of spaceflight.

Starship Flight 14/Starlink Group 31-1 is set to lift off at 7:15 am CDT on Sept. 28 with a 75-minute launch window.

SpaceX Starship Flight 14 - Launch & Booster Splashdown - LAUNCH STREAM - YouTube

Flight 12 and 13 Recap

The past two Starship flights have gone pretty well for the ship, but not as well for the booster. Flight 12 was the first-ever Block 3 Starship stack to fly, and during the flight, Booster 19 had boost-back issues and was lost during its landing burn attempt.

Ship 39 lost a Raptor Vacuum engine during ascent, but still completed its ascent burn and deployed its payload. Ship 39 then reentered and made an on-target splashdown in the Indian Ocean.

Flight 13 went better than Flight 12, with Booster 20 completing a perfect ascent and actually starting all engines for the boost-back burn; however, due to ice ingestion issues, the burn was cut short, and Booster 20 ended up farther offshore than was intended.

Then, during the landing burn, Booster 20 failed to ignite all engines before slamming into the Gulf and exploding.

Booster 20 Raptor Engines at Liftoff

Ship 40 then completed a perfect ascent burn and then deployed all 20 Starlink V3 satellites, which deployed their solar arrays for testing before burning up behind the ship. Ship 40 then completed a perfect reentry before splashing down intact in the Indian Ocean, which surprised SpaceX.

After over a month at sea and engineers removing tiles and other components for study, Ship 40 was loaded onto the ship Forte and is currently in the Atlantic Ocean, set to return on No Earlier Than (NET) Oct. 8.

Why now for an Orbital Attempt?

The last 13 test flights have been suborbital missions to improve the ship and booster over time without risking accidentally leaving a 52-meter-long, nine-meter-wide, 160-metric-ton vehicle in orbit with no control.

With that in mind, SpaceX chose to use suborbital missions to ensure that no matter if teams lost control of the ship, which did happen a few times, the ship would reenter the atmosphere no matter what.

This suborbital track let SpaceX test a full stack: liftoff, stage separation, boost-back and landing burns for the booster, and near-full ascent burns for the ship. In later missions with 40 minutes of coast-phase time, SpaceX engineers tested payload deployment with dummy V3s and eventually full V3 Starlink satellites, as well as in-space Raptor engine relights that simulated a deorbit burn.

Booster 21 and Ship 41 Stacked

Finally, with the ships just shy of orbital velocity, SpaceX gathered strong heat-shield data during the controlled reentries. This helped inform changes like adding ablative material under the tiles, starting with Ship 30, or eliminating heat shield seams to better seal gaps between the tiles.

With this information, SpaceX made significant changes to the launch pad, booster, and ship over time. This resulted in a newly designed launch pad, which is now being constructed at three launch pads at Cape Canaveral; Pad 1 was demolished and is being retrofitted, and at least 10 are planned at Starbase, LA.

This information also led to a clean-sheet design for the Block 3 booster with an integrated hotstage ring and important internal upgrades, as well as an upgraded ship design for longer-duration missions in orbit and eventually to return the ship to the launch site.

With all of these upgraded systems and two flights using the newer booster and ship, SpaceX is ready to attempt an orbital mission, deploy 26 Starlink V3 satellites, and then perform a deorbit burn to splashdown in the South Pacific Ocean.

Booster 21 Static Fire

Launch Windows, Launch License Changes

The launch date for Flight 14/Starlink Group 31-1 is set for Sept. 28 at 7:15 am CDT with a 75-minute launch window. Backup days run from Sept. 29 to Oct. 4, with current Notices to Airmen and Notices to Mariners. The road closures for this launch are a bit shorter than in the past. For Flight 14, SpaceX will close the beach and road starting at 4 am CDT and reopen them at 10 am CDT.

This is much shorter than past launches were; SpaceX would keep the road closed for nearly 10 to 12 hours. It shows the confidence and efficiency of SpaceX’s new tank farm and range operations.

To perform this mission, SpaceX had to obtain an updated launch license from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). SpaceX not only received a revised license, but also a reentry license for Starship. The original launch license for Starship included launch and reentry under the same definition section; now it’s split into two sections within the same license.

The license is No. VOL 23-129 Rev 9.0 Order A-1 for launch and Order A-2 for reentry, which places both under the same license. This differs from older FAA licensing and is part of the new Part 450 of the Federal Aviation Regulations. Order A-1 now covers initial liftoff and suborbital flight, should SpaceX not go into orbit.

Order A-2 now gives Starship permission to reenter from orbit and splashdown in the Pacific Ocean, as stated in the application, covering the splashdown zone north of Hawaii and the intended zone off the coast of Chile in the South Pacific Ocean. This Order only authorizes Starship-Super Heavy Flight 14, so SpaceX will need another modification for Flight 15 and beyond. Eventually, the FAA will add LC-39A to this launch license.

Starship Flight 14 has its launch license! All go for Monday!

Mission Objectives, Trajectory, and Launch Timeline

This flight uses Booster 21 and Ship 41; compared to Booster 20 and Ship 40, only a few changes are worth noting. Ship 41’s heat shield has the newer extended ablative, which moves the heat shield back toward the leeward side, like Ship 30’s, and extends it as far as the early ships. Booster 21 has had the aerocovers above the outer 20 Raptor engines removed; SpaceX appears to have decided they aren’t needed going forward.

Before listing the important mission objectives for Ship 41, it is also an important mission for Booster 21. Because Booster 19 and Booster 20 had issues during the past two flights, SpaceX will not attempt to catch Booster 21; instead, engineers will aim for the booster to complete a mission like Booster 11. This would include a full ascent, boost-back, and landing burn on target in the Gulf. SpaceX needs Booster 21 to succeed because teams want to move into booster reuses as soon as possible.

Deployment of 20 @Starlink V3 satellites complete. Today's test will provide critical data as we prepare to expand our Starlink constellation

The mission objectives, trajectory, and timeline for this launch differ from the past 13 Starship flights. The primary mission objective for this flight is to reach orbit, deploy 26 Starlink V3 satellites into a 32-degree inclination orbit, then deorbit over the South Pacific Ocean and splashdown after about an eight-hour coast phase following payload deployment.

A splashdown after an eight-hour coast phase isn’t the only way this mission can end; SpaceX will be very conservative because, as noted above, teams don’t want to leave a ship stranded in orbit.

The mission trajectory starts similarly to the last two launches, launching from Starbase, TX, and threading the needle between Jamaica and Cuba before passing through the Leeward Islands and entering a 32-degree inclination suborbital trajectory. Inclination is the angle of an orbit that is relative to Earth’s equatorial plane. After Starship Engine Cutoff (SECO) at about T+ 8:11, Ship 41 will be in a suborbital trajectory to splashdown in the Indian Ocean.

Starship Flight 14 Aborts and Coast Phases (Credit: SpaceX)

This ensures that if any issues arise during ascent or during the checkout phase after SECO, SpaceX can abort the attempt to reach orbit and splashdown in the Indian Ocean. Assuming Ship 41 passes all checks and SpaceX is comfortable going to orbit, the teams will command the ship to initiate the orbital insertion and circulation burn at about T+ 25:19, which will last about 18 seconds. This burn should bring Ship 41 into an approximately 275 km by 275 km orbit around Earth.

Following that burn, Ship 41 will then deploy all 26 Starlink V3 satellites from about T+ 34:09 to about T+ 1:04:41. Once payload deployment is completed, SpaceX will perform another health check on all ship systems; this is to determine if Ship 41 is good to complete at least six hours of the eight-hour coast phase. If SpaceX engineers see something they don’t like, they will command Ship 41 to reenter just north of Hawaii in the Central Pacific Ocean just before completing two full orbits.

Assuming Ship 41 passes those health checks, it will coast for about six hours while engineers continue to monitor systems for any issues that may arise. Then, after a few orbits, SpaceX will run another health check about two hours before the end of the mission to determine whether Ship 41 can continue to the end or must return a bit earlier. If Ship 41 passes all health checks at each milestone, the deorbit burn for the final splashdown zone is set to commence at approximately T+ 8:52:37 and will last about 10 seconds.

Starship in space on Flight 13

This will then bring Ship 41 on a trajectory to land just off the coast of Chile in the South Pacific Ocean. Reentry is set to start at around T+ 9:29:02 and will continue until Starship initiates its landing burn at about T+ 9:50:11. Total mission completion is set at about 9 hours, 50 minutes, and 30 seconds.

It is unknown whether SpaceX will attempt to recover Ship 41 if it survives the full flight and splashdown, but it may want to collect heat shield samples if possible.

Beyond attempting orbit, SpaceX is also testing two tiles on Ship 41’s aft that it removed from Ship 40 as it floated off the coast of Christmas Island. It is also testing other improvements based on data gathered from Ship 40. These include additional retention mechanisms for tiles that had retention issues during ascent, as well as a curved tile design to reduce heating in gaps between tiles.

Ship 40 tiles on Ship 41’s Aft Skirt

As stated above, Ship 41 will attempt to deploy 26 Starlink V3s into orbit, adding 1 Tbps of capacity to the Starlink network per satellite once operational. These 26 satellites provide 10 times the capacity of a single Falcon 9 launch of Starlink V2 minis.

SpaceX has many objectives for this historic Starship flight, and hopefully Ship 41 can complete the entire planned mission while Booster 21 performs all aspects perfectly so Booster 22 can be caught on the next flight.

Featured Image: Ship 41 and Booster 21 During their WDR (Credit: SpaceX)